Senate District 41 update: Thurmond in, Stavrinakis out
Republican Paul Thurmond, a James Island attorney who represented a big part of Senate District 41 on Charleston County Council, has committed to file for the upcoming special election and regular contests to fill the State Senate seat vacated by Lt. Governor Glenn McConnell.
Numerous sources have also indicated that Democratic State Representative Leon Stavrinakis will sit this contest out and seek re-election to his House district this fall. Redistricting shored his numbers up considerably, meaning he'll face his easiest race since he won the seat in 2006.
Filing for the seat closes later this week but we've not heard any other big names looking at the seat.
Kiawah and Seabrook were taken out. While Stavrinakis got some cross-over votes from those islands, they were usually strong GOP precincts. He picked up some reliably Democratic areas on James Island, such as Sol Legare Island, Westchester, Grimball Road.
The new district ends up with a BVAP of just under 25%. Combined with his ability to get cross-over votes from white voters, it's a safer district than it was for him.
The map is here: http://redistricting.schouse.gov/FilesSubmittedJuly112011/HouseDistrictMaps/D0119.pdf